Making an NI Massive Hydraulic Synth

This tutorial shares how to make a sound that is used in some of the most popular dubstep and electro music right now, but it is hard to put a name to. So in this tutorial we will simply refer to it as an NI Massive hydraulic synth.

You may recognize this type of sound from popular artists like Datsik and Excision in some of their recent releases. It is a powerful mechanical sounding synth that fits in so well with this style of music that when we came across this tutorial we had to share it with the community. Once you add this NI Massive hydraulic synth to your arsenal, you will probably find yourself wanting to use it all sorts of songs. Perhaps this is why we are hearing it more and more often these days.

To get this NI Massive hydraulic synth started, load an A.I. wavetable into OSC1 and raise the pitch two octaves. Next, load a Smooth Square wavetable into OSC2 and drop the pitch two octaves. Then, load a Scream wavetable into OSC3 and raise the pitch three octaves.

The sound is then routed through the Filter1 panel, where a Scream filter has been loaded. Two different insert effects are also introduced here. First a Sine Shaper and then a Hardclipper. You will need to set up the Routing tab to make sure that your insert effects are routed as they are shown in the video. A small amount of Feedback is also added. Load a Classic Tube Amp into the FX1 tab to give the sound some drive and more distortion. And the finishing touch for this NI Massive hydraulic synth is to use the EQ to accent the high end a touch.

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